Kansas basketball: Border War Showdown for Relief keeps giving
By Stan Unruh
Kansas basketball fans are still celebrating the success of the Showdown for Relief. Bill Self’s brilliant, fundraising, basketball rivalry battle did far more than expected.
I have spoken to a few people who did attend the Showdown for Relief basketball thriller. I listened to a portion of the radio play-by-play and caught a few highlights from the Jayhawk win over the Border War rivals online. Jayhawk fans love Bill Self for many reasons. Now there more than $2 million more reasons.
The university reported late last month that the Showdown for Relief did raise $2.011 million. All the money will go to help victims of this fall’s disasters across the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
What the university didn’t say is that coach Self’s idea also prompted others to host charity basketball games too. That says even more about Self’s idea to bring the Border War rivals together. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Several other school decided to follow Self’s idea and good for them.
I’ll admit, I did not like the idea when news of the game first broke on a Sunday afternoon in early October. I was wrong. Getting the two old rivals together was as exciting as everyone expected. Everything fell perfectly into place for the game including the NFL’s Chiefs playing on Thursday that week.
The Showdown for Relief sparked a similar idea among Texas and Texas A&M, as described in a media release from the Longhorns. The university has yet to release how much money that game raised between a pair of real rivals.
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In addition, the other Big 12 university in Kansas also decided to play one of their big rivals — Missouri State the night before the Showdown for Relief? Has anyone seen any attendance figures from that game? On November 6, Wichita State hosted a relief benefit game agains Newman. Rivalry or not, all the dollars raised are helping those in need.